Manually Downgrading the IRF Fabric from Comware7 to Comware5 on Chassis Based 12500 Switches

These are the steps to manually recover the IRF via the BootWare menu and switch CLI’s

If the built-in flash was NOT formatted in CMW V7

This procedure assumes that all 4 switches will be loaded with the same version of code. 

1)      Power off both chassis

2)      Disconnect IRF and MAD links between chassis

3)      Insert a single MPU in chassis 1 slot 0

4)      Use the bootware menu to load the applicable version of Comware code (refer to the section titled “Updating the Switches Software via Bootware”)

5)      Leaving MPU in chassis 1 slot 0 booted, insert the alternate MPU in chassis 1 slot 1

6)      Use the bootware menu to load the applicable version of Comware code

7)      Verify with the display version and display device commands that all MPU’s and LPU’s are loaded with the applicable version of code and that MPU in slot 0 is master

8)      Insert a single MPU in chassis 2 slot 0

9)      Use the bootware menu to load the applicable version of Comware code

10)   Leaving MPU in chassis 2 slot 0 booted, insert the alternate MPU in chassis 2 slot 1

11)   Use the bootware menu to load the applicable version of Comware code

12)   Verify with the display version and display device commands that all MPU’s and LPU’s are loaded with the applicable version of code and that MPU in slot 0 is master

13)   Connect the IRF links

14)   Chassis 1 will log an IRF merge message and will not require a reboot

<HP>display logbuffer reverse

…

%Jan  8 01:31:03:762 2016 HP STM/5/STM_MERGE:

 IRF merge occurs and the IRF system does not need to reboot.

15)   Chassis 2 will log an IRF merge message and will require a reboot

<HP>display logbuffer reverse

…

%Jan  8 01:30:12:553 2016 HP STM/4/STM_MERGE_NEED_REBOOT:

 IRF merge occurs and the IRF system needs a reboot.

16)   Reboot chassis 2

NOTE: It is very important that you do not save the current configuration file (answer NO when prompted).  Otherwise the config file won’t have the applicable irf settings and will not merge.  If you accidentally say YES, you can still recover via the procedure below (If the built-in flash was formatted in CMW V7)

<HP>reboot

Start to check configuration with next startup configuration file, please wait.........DONE!

This command will reboot the device. Current configuration will be lost, save current configuration? [Y/N]:n ß Very IMPORTANT to say no

This command will reboot the device. Continue? [Y/N]:y

17)   After chassis 2 reboots, both switches are in the IRF and that all MPU’s and LPU’s are loaded with the applicable version of code and that MPU in chassis 1 slot 0 is master. 

18)   Reconnect the MAD links

19)   At this point you can continue testing as per steps 5.4.8 and 5.4.9

If the built-in flash was formatted in CMW V7

This procedure is almost identical to the previous procedure except the MPU’s won’t be able to find the startup configuration file once it reboots.  Therefore you will have to manual load it from your backup location after the MPU boots.  To accomplish this, insert the following step just after step 12 above:

12a) On each MPU console port, recover the backed up configuration file do this:

[HP]configuration replace file cfa0:/configv5.cfg ßSpecify the applicable backed up config file

Current configuration will be lost, save current configuration? [Y/N]:n ßDo not save current config

Info: Now replacing the current configuration. Please wait...

Info: Succeeded in replacing current configuration with the file config.cfg.